Scrum-half Simione Kuruvoli has thanked the Flying Fijians coaching panel for believing in his abilities and giving him the crucial task of kicking in their historic 22-15 win over Australia in the Rugby World Cup today.
The 24-year-old from Kadavu successfully kicked four penalties and a conversion and contributed 14 points in the victory.
“I normally just do the scrum part and feed the balls, but I don’t have the kicking bit,” Kuruvoli said.
“I thank the coaches for trusting me, I was surprised today.”
“The extras that have been going on after training, the kicking – I thank the coaches again for believing in me, it went well today.”
Kuruvoli said after a 32-26 loss to Wales, they had stuck to a blueprint and studied their opponents well before the match.
“We’ve been watching their games [way] back because New Zealand and Australia play heaps of games.”
“We just took our learnings from [Australia’s game versus Georgia] last week and we won.”
“We were coming in to dominate them in many different ways, the scrums, the lineouts.”
Kuruvoli added the win would go a long way in boosting grassroots rugby back home.
“It would be very high, the win today will give a boost to the young ones to play for Fiji.”
